Help with Invoice form

[Holly Q]

Hi. I'm having a little bit of a problem with my first Filemaker file. I am switching from Lotus Approach Millenium. I'm trying to set up an invoice program. In Approach there is something called a repeating panel. You can place a repeating panel on your form and then you can add fields from tables into the form. The panel can display as many lines as you want and then if more lines are needed it scrolls down. I normally set up my repeating panel to include productID, Qty, Description, Cost and Total. Then all I need to do is fill in the product number and it fills in the rest of the infomation. Then I tab down to the next line in the repeating panel and continue adding items. How is this accomplished in Filemaker? I thought maybe the Portal was the answer but I guess not. The only way I see to do this is to actally put lots of qty fields, etc. on the form. Is this right or am I overlooking something? I HOPE that I'm overlooking something. I hate to have my form have 50 or more lines on it. Any help would be much appreciated.

[aldipalo]

Take a look at the BPS_Sales_Orders solution that comes free with FM to get one idea.

Portals are similar to repeating panels but you must set your relationships correctly in order for them to accomplish what you are looking for.

See attached file.

Sales_Orders.zip